Éternel
by Katsuko1978
Summary: Five years wasn't a long time in the grand scheme of things, but just long enough to notice.... Minor 104 hints, future/speculation fic. NOT related to "Threads" in any way. Tetralogy/quadrilogy. Completed 7/24/2008
1. Toujours Jeunes

**Disclaimer:** xxxHOLiC © CLAMP  
**Warnings:** post-series speculation (because right now, any future fic is speculation), slash hints  
**Summary:** Five years wasn't a long time in the grand scheme of things, but just long enough to notice...

* * *

_**Toujours Jeunes**_

It had been five years since Watanuki disappeared when Doumeki realized that he wasn't aging.

At first, he hadn't even noticed it, simply because he'd spent several months trying to find out just _where_ the other man had vanished to. One day he was there, nineteen years old and still working for Yuuko even though his true wish had been granted long ago, having a long overdue talk with Doumeki; the next he was gone, nothing left in his apartment save for one abandoned ofuda and no forwarding address.

High school acquaintances could tell him nothing, as they hadn't really had contact with Watanuki since graduation. Himawari couldn't really tell him much as she had paid the price for them to do what was needed, and she still hadn't mastered sign language. That, plus she hadn't been in touch with either of them since that day so that her bad luck wouldn't have an effect on their mission. Yuuko's fortune teller acquaintance would only say that if Doumeki was meant to find the seer he would, and not even Kohane had spoken with him since the two young men had ventured off to another world to help fight a war that wasn't even theirs.

His final recourse was to go to Yuuko and find out from her just where the hell Watanuki was, but when he had gone to the shop all he found was the vacant lot that he'd initially seen in that spot. No amount of waiting or watching made it reappear, not even when he walked into it experimentally. It was almost as if his earlier wish had no precedence any longer, and he was therefore no longer one of the witch's customers.

That had marked the end of year one. By the time year two was coming to a close, people seemed to start forgetting that the seer had ever existed.

It started with those same high school acquaintances; when he mentioned to them off-handedly that he couldn't find anyone who knew where Watanuki had gone, they looked at him with confused expressions and asked, _who?_ People who had been Yuuko's customers, the ones he had seen himself, remembered visiting a shop and purchasing something, but none of them could recall a young man who may or may not have worn glasses and who may or may not have had heterochromic eyes. Teachers at his high school could find records for Watanuki Kimihiro, but none of them could actually recall the boy ever being in any of their classes, not even the home economics instructor who had once raved about Watanuki's cooking skills.

By the third year, Doumeki stopped asking around for his friend, choosing instead to converse with those few who could remember him. The list was very short: the fortune teller, Kohane, and Himawari. Granted, he didn't get to visit any of them frequently with his university classes and his duties at the temple, but he did see them whenever time permitted; he exchanged letters with his former classmate frequently as it was easiest for her to write these days.

For a little while, Doumeki could almost pretend that there was nothing missing, that the last time he had seen one of his best friends wasn't just before he left for his first year of university. He could pretend that the last time he had spoken to Watanuki he _hadn't_ confessed his feelings, and received neither a rejection nor acceptance, and that Watanuki _hadn't_ told him he needed a little time. He could pretend, sometimes, that they'd had that conversation only days or weeks or even hours ago.

Which was why it took him till his twenty-fourth birthday to look in the mirror and realize that it was _wrong_ for the face staring back to be that of a nineteen year old.

The minute he finally, _finally_ noticed, he felt shocked for a moment then confusion, followed by realization and overwhelming relief. Shock because it was wrong for someone to not age in a full five years, confused for the exact same reason, and relief due to his sudden realization that if he wasn't aging then it stood to reason that neither was Watanuki. That wherever Watanuki was, he had to be alive because that connection of the eye and the blood would have long been broken. That wherever Watanuki was, he wasn't aging any more than Doumeki was.

Watanuki was probably _why_ Doumeki wasn't aging.

And Doumeki was going to find him. No matter how long it might take.

* * *

Just a little title note: I am a strange creature. The title is simply "forever young" as translated by iGoogle's language tool. Yeah, cliché, but I don't care.

Also, I had hesitated on whether to leave this as a one-shot or add another chapter or two. As it looks now – judging by the _nine_ reviews I got for it via LJ last night – this will wind up being either a trilogy or tetralogy (i.e. quadrilogy; I like _tetra_ better though). I'm tentatively calling the series _Éternal_.


	2. Héritier de la Sorcière

**Disclaimer:** xxxHOLiC © CLAMP  
**Warnings:** post-series speculation, slash implications  
**Summary:** A trial by fire can be difficult, but it's not always the pain which hurts most.

* * *

_**Héritier de la Sorcière**_

He realizes now what he didn't back then: no matter what answer he'd given, it would have been a lie.

Yes, that conversation was long, _long_ overdue, but it couldn't have come at the worst possible time. He was still reeling in some ways, having just been informed of the true nature of his long term of employment, and hearing those words he'd waited to hear for _so damned long_ was bittersweet.

He hadn't given a real answer, and he knows the reason is because anything would have been a lie. If he had said, _thank you, but I cannot return your feelings_, he would have been lying because he had loved and needed Doumeki for over two years at that point but hadn't been brave enough to say anything. If he had said, _thank you, I accept and return your feelings_, it would have been a lie because he could not, could _never_ force his beloved into the world he himself had no choice but to become part of.

So he had told the easiest of the lies: _I need time to think._ That was a lie because he already knew his own heart. It was a lie because pursuing the relationship was no longer an option in his life.

Watanuki Kimihiro walked away that day and began the slow process of disappearing from everyone's memories.

His trial by fire had been hard, a long road that he had walked first alone and then with _him_ by his side. Even giving up his memories - those precious, bitter memories that were now long-restored as had always been intended in the end - had been only part of his lessons, only a small part of the test to see if he would be suitable in the end.

And when it was all over, when the worlds were lapsing back into their natural orders, Ichihara Yuuko had pronounced him ready to take his place as her heir.

It truly was bittersweet. The one thing he had been working toward for years, since the day he had been invited into her shop - for he'd had no wish at that time - was finally in his grasp, but he no longer _wanted_ a lonely existence. He wanted to have a chance with Doumeki, wanted to see if the feelings they so obviously shared would grow and flourish.

Yet he was the heir to the Dimensional Witch, and that was a job that left no room for lasting attachments. Humans grew old and faded with time, and he was no longer remotely human. He would never be human or mortal again, not until he was ready to choose his own heir. It had been five years, both so little time and so much, and already he could see the signs of aging in his eternally youthful mentor. She would be leaving soon, he knew that, to say her final goodbyes to friends in this world before asking him to send her to the one place she most wanted to be. From then on, she would be mortal and prone to the ravages of time, and he could tell from her eyes that she was ready for it.

And when she decided it was time, he would no longer be her heir. _He_ would be the Dimensional Witch, the Sorcerer of Time and Space. Eventually he would earn his own title to add to that list, as all those before him had, but that would be only after Yuuko was gone; just like eventually he would choose a name to use for those who may possibly ask for one.

For now, though, he would simply be Kimihiro, because Watanuki was gone forever.

The sound of footsteps draws his attention, and Maru appears to inform him that a customer has entered. Kimihiro thanks her and stands, allowing his bitter thoughts to be put aside for now. He will have time later to think on the things he has lost and can never have again. He will have time later, when the shop is quiet and he can retreat to the comfort of his kitchen, to reminisce over the love he was forced to leave behind.

Kimihiro is the Heir, and he is still learning.

It doesn't mean his heart has frozen yet.

* * *

Another title note (apparently the theme for this trilogy/tetralogy is French titles): Once again I'm abusing iGoogle. The title this time loosely translates to "The Witch's Heir." Yeah, that's where the hell Wata--I mean, Kimihiro disappeared off to. Yuuko is officially retiring.

And yes, this is the second part of the trilogy or tetralogy, since I'm still not sure if I can polish it off to just three chapters. We'll see, though.


	3. Tu M'as Manqué

**Disclaimer:** xxxHOLiC © CLAMP  
**Warnings:** post-series speculation, slash implications  
**Summary:** Sometimes, you realize that what you've been trying to find has been right there all the while.

* * *

_**Tu M'as Manqué**_

Three years had gone by much faster than Doumeki had expected them to, even though at times it had felt like forever. It had now been eight years, a brief eternity, since the last time he had watched Watanuki walk away from him, and he was no closer to finding him than he had been on the day he vowed to never stop looking.

The only real lead he'd found on what had happened, what little help it was, had been just a year after he'd taken that vow. Yuuko's fortune teller friend had mentioned to him in passing that the woman herself, after a six year absence of her own, had recently stopped by to visit and to say her goodbyes. A little more digging - not to mention a bottle of his grandfather's finest aged sake - had revealed that the former Dimensional Witch was retiring, and had been slowly leaving everything in the hands of her one-time assistant for years.

So he now knew _why_ Watanuki had disappeared without a trace. He just didn't know _where_ the man was now.

Doumeki shook himself from his thoughts and glanced at the vendors around him. He had spent a lot of his time searching for any hints of Watanuki in the places where the other man had spent a great deal of his time outside of work and school, even though so far his efforts had yielded no results. Today he'd opted to check the street market on the off chance that the seer still opted to buy his food in his home dimension. As he was passing by the fish dealer's, he felt someone bump into him from behind.

"Excuse me, mister!" the person who'd crashed into him chimed before darting around and continuing on her way. Doumeki blinked, confused. The girl's voice had sounded oddly familiar, but that was impossible. So far as he knew, the twins that had lived in the shop were soulless, unable to exist outside of it, not to mention that they'd each had the appearance of a nine or ten year old.

Yet the girl disappearing into the crowd was dressed in white-and-pink Lolita gear, had cotton candy pink hair falling around her shoulders, and from behind seemed to be about fourteen. There was no way, no _possible way_, that it could be Moro.

And still he followed her through the crowd, close enough to not lose sight of her but not close enough to make out what she was mumbling to herself. Every so often, she'd stop and dart over to a vendor's cart to examine the merchandise, checking a list in her hand and making a purchase if she confirmed it as a necessity. Doumeki could only catch sight of her profile, every now and again, yet she could almost - _almost_ - be an older version of the small pink-haired girl who used to dance around in Yuuko's shop.

Yuuko's shop, that was now apparently Watanuki's shop.

They continued in this manner for a while, the girl browsing the market and the man acting as a silent shadow, until they reached the end of the street. The second she turned the corner, the teenager who might be Morodashi picked up her pace and jogged to a bench at the bus stop. Doumeki remained where he was, able to watch her without being seen.

Ten minutes passed, and he was about to head back to the market to begin his search again when his patience was rewarded. From the other side of the street another teenage girl appeared, jogging to join the pink-haired one at the bench. This one was dressed more in the punk style, clad in black slacks with chains and a sleeveless black tank top with fingerless gloves and wrist bands, her long hair pulled up into periwinkle blue pigtails that hung nearly to her knees. Like the white-clad girl, she was also carrying a shopping basket although hers was filled with flour and sugar and milk.

"Sister, there you are!" the punk girl, who could almost pass for an older Marudashi, greeted. "Did you find everything?"

"You're the one who made me wait, sister!" the Lolita girl replied, giggling. "I found everything that brother put on the list, plus fried tofu."

"Why fried tofu?" the black-clad girl asked, tucking her basket under one arm and lacing her arm through her sister's. They turned and began walking down the street away from where Doumeki was standing, and he quietly slipped around the corner to follow them.

"We're having a guest this evening," the first girl replied. After a moment of silent communication they both burst into giggles, reminding the man of some of the girls he'd attended high school with. Those girls, however, were all in their late twenties, like he would be if he hadn't stopped aging so long ago.

"Are you sure? It's been so long, and everything is different now with Mistress gone."

"I'm positive. Brother said it would be tonight, and to get everything right because that one will make ridiculous demands." The pink-haired girl said the last part while waving one hand in the air in imitation of the person she was quoting, making the long-haired girl snort in laughter.

"Do you think we should keep being rude and pretending we don't know he's there?" the blue-haired girl said abruptly. They stopped walking, and each looked over her shoulder directly at Doumeki for the first time, twin smirks of amusement on their faces.

"I think you two have had enough playing for the day," another voice, this one male and achingly familiar, spoke from directly behind Doumeki. The archer turned and looked, needing to confirm what his ears were telling him.

Watanuki looked exactly as he had the last time they'd seen one another. The seer gave Doumeki a long look before turning his attention to the twins once more. "Go back to the shop now, Maru, Moro. We'll be along soon."

* * *

This section's title is translated by LiveJournal's factorielle, which is better than iGoogle. The loose translation is "I've missed you," and I don't think I need to explain it any further than that!

And, cliffhanger! Sort of. There was no way I could really feel this out to just a trilogy, so it's definitely going to be a tetralogy (or quadrilogy for those who prefer the newer term). The very next one after this is the end!

Additional little bits: The girls' outfits are linked in my writing journal, KatsukoFic over on LiveJournal. The link to the site is in my bio, and the image links are in the Tu M'as Manqué post there.


	4. Toujours Moi, Toujours Toi

**Disclaimer:** xxxHOLiC © CLAMP  
**Warnings:** post-series speculation, slash  
**Summary:** When love is inevitable, it will be stopped neither by time nor distance.

* * *

_**Toujours Moi, Toujours Toi**_

Doumeki could hear the twins giggling behind him once more, but didn't bother to look at them. His attention was focused on Watanuki, although the seer hadn't looked back at him again. Only once the giggles faded along with booted footfalls did that blue-and-gold gaze turn to him again.

The seer - or was it the witch now? - studied him for a moment, a thoughtful frown on his lips as he seemed to note the lack of years to Doumeki's face. He gave a slight nod and faint hum after a moment before turning in the direction he'd initially come from.

"We should talk," he said softly, "but not out here. It's too public." When he started walking, the archer fell into step with him as expected. No more words were said until they reached the park, where what seemed like a lifetime ago they had met for group outings that generally turned into arguments and occasionally jobs.

Doumeki began to say the other's name, but only got so far as _Wata_ before a pale hand was resting over his mouth. Heterochromic eyes were now peering at him with an intensity that he couldn't recall ever seeing there before, but he knew that look.

It was a look Yuuko's eyes had held many a time in the past, eyes that knew far too much and would learn far more in the future.

"Kimihiro," the seer/witch corrected, tone firm but not unkind. "It's safest that way," he added as he removed his hand.

"Kimihiro," Doumeki repeated. At the slight nod he received, he continued. "So, it's true that she retired then."

Kimihiro nodded. "She'd always intended to, someday. And she always intended for me to inherit the shop, from the first time she invited me in." He gave a faint smile at the other man's slightly startled expression. "No, I had no wish the first time I entered Yuuko's shop. I was only twelve at the time."

"Why did you think that you only entered it for the first time when you were seventeen then?" Doumeki asked curiously. So far as he'd been aware, Watanuki - no, _Kimihiro_ had stumbled across the shop when he'd wanted nothing more than for the spirits to leave him alone. That was what the seer had always said in the past...

"Because that was part of my trial," came the response. "From what Yuuko-san told me, all heir-potentials to the title have to go through a trial-by-fire, as it were. A task that the potential must choose to face alone, with no aid from his or her mentor. If aid is provided, it comes in the form of wishes that must be repaid. My trial began with the payment for a wish that had yet to be asked, at the cost of my memories.

"I choose to take the trial, and paid that price. Only once it was nearing the end would I be able to retrieve them."

Ah. So, that at least explained how and why Kimihiro had known so much when the two of them had gone to that odd world to help in the fight. If he'd been missing five years worth - perhaps more - of memories and lessons, the return of them would have made him more formidable. Which apparently it had.

"Why did you disappear?" was Doumeki's next question. Beneath that, though, he was also asking, _Why didn't you say goodbye? Why did you give me hope that my feelings were returned? Why did you let me find you if you didn't want to see me?_

Kimihiro seemed to hear all of his questions, judging by the small frown he was giving. "That's the way it had to be," he said, voice still unusually quiet. "No one from any one dimension can truly remember who the Dimensional Witch was before he or she became thus. The best way is to vanish quietly, and let the magic around the title slowly erase him or her from that world. I'm sure that by now, nearly everyone has forgotten me. Only a few ever remember, and mortal lives are fleeting things. It's probably only you, and Kohane-chan, and Himawari-chan, and Grandmother Fortune now, isn't it?"

He waited for Doumeki's nod to continue: "In another thirty, forty, fifty years, there won't be anyone left in this world who remembers an odd boy who professed to see spirits. Except, somehow, for you."

Doumeki ignored the fact that, for the moment, some of his silent questions had gone ignored. "I understand why you still look the same as the last time we spoke," he said, leaving the actual reason for _that_ conversation unspoken, "but there's no reason I shouldn't have grown older with time."

Kimihiro snorted. "That would be Yuuko-san's _hitsuzen_ making a point. _She_ never said anything about how tight the bonds between you and I would be, but I think she knew that something would be different from how it's always been before."

Doumeki knew he was frowning again, but he didn't really understand the answer. "What do you mean?"

Blue-and-gold eyes turned to meet the archer's. "You're wondering why I lied," he said abruptly. "It's because the only answer, no matter what, would have been a lie. _No_ would have been a lie because I love you so much it frightens me. _Yes_ would have been a lie because I knew I couldn't stay. The answer I gave was a lie, but the kinder one at that time. I didn't realize that there was another option until after Yuuko-san left."

The archer stared at Kimihiro, deciphering his words as best he could. The other man hadn't wanted to simply walk away, but had done so in an attempt to be kind as he erased himself from the world. He'd allowed his own heart to break in order to try and keep Doumeki from being drawn into his new world, but apparently there was an aberration. After a moment of thinking he said, "The eye."

"Partly. Partly the blood we share. It all comes down to the bonds between us." Kimihiro shrugged one shoulder, an almost-thoughtful expression in his eyes. "Right before Yuuko-san left for Clow Country, she gave me that damned smirk of hers and told me to look for something that was missing. Just like that, _something that is missing_. Eight years ago, I probably would have shrugged it off as her being mysterious again, but I've learned to pay attention. Shut up," he added with a mild glare in Doumeki's direction.

"I didn't say anything," he protested, although a faint twitch at the corner of his mouth displayed his amusement.

"You speak louder than you realize, Shizuka," Kimihiro complained under his breath before speaking louder again. "Anyway, rather than ignore what she said, I took a step back - figuratively and literally speaking - to take a look at where I had been, where I was, and what was different between the two. The girls kept telling me that I was too quiet, and that I felt lonely to them. They're very sensitive in that way, Maru and Moro, always attuned to everything around them.

"They knew something was missing. And when I looked to find out what, I realized that I was only at my best, and worst, and most alive whenever I was with you."

Doumeki felt himself at a complete loss for words. It had been one thing to hear the witch confess that his love was returned, but another thing to be informed that he was basically Kimihiro's world. "Oh," was all he could say in reply.

And heterochromic eyes danced in amusement. "You are a man of many words," he teased. Any sting was taken out of his words when he closed the distance between them (when had Kimihiro moved so close?) and kissed him. It wasn't a long kiss, more a press of lips and the ghostly caress of a tongue for a second before the witch took a step back and gave him a warm smile. "But, for better or worse, you are part of me. Just like I'm part of you."

"Ah," Doumeki said, still trying to find words and wondering if he could get another (longer) kiss soon. "That's why I'm twenty-seven going on nineteen. Because you don't get any older, I won't either."

"I knew you would get it sooner or later," Kimihiro replied. "Neither of us will get any older than we were the day I left, not until I choose my own heir. Which won't be for a very long time, if ever."

"Why wouldn't you leave it all eventually?"

"Because, I have something all those before me didn't."

The implication didn't need to be said aloud; none of those witches in the past had the benefit of their loved ones being as ageless as they were.

They fell silent, leaving the park and walking in the direction of the shop once more. Although Shizuka had tried to find it before without success, he had the feeling that this time there would be nothing to keep him out. Kimihiro had as good as said that he wasn't going to allow them to be apart a moment longer, if not in so many words.

Still, something was bothering him.

"Kimihiro." When the other man turned his head to look at him, he asked, "What happened to those two? Maru and Moro."

"I let them choose their fates," Kimihiro replied. "My own powers can keep the shop anchored in whichever reality I choose for it to be in, so they were free should they desire it. I told them that no matter what they wanted to do, I wouldn't stop them. A part of me thought they would either go with Yuuko-san or decide to fade out of existence. They chose to stay, so I told them that they could choose what age they wanted to be... and I gave them souls."

Shizuka frowned slightly, wondering how his witch could do something that Yuuko had apparently been unable to. "They're teenagers," he noted.

"Yes, a fact which they remind me of every day," Kimihiro confirmed. "Which is why I'm the older brother rather than the father. They wanted to be closer in age to me so they could do more to help. Maru's gotten pretty good at baking, while Moro prefers to clean and do the shopping."

"I thought that it was impossible for them to be given souls."

"For Yuuko-san, it was. Her personal title was the Butterfly Witch." Kimihiro stopped walking for a moment and smiled softly. "Each one of us eventually earns a title that's all our own, for whatever reason. Yuuko-san chose the butterfly for her symbol long ago, and that's what most people remember about her. Me, though..."

He let his words trail off, raising one hand so that he was idly pointing towards the sky. A faint breeze kicked up, picking up the fallen sakura blossoms and carrying them in a small cyclone around the silent witch. After a moment he dropped his hand so that it was palm-up, allowing one of the petals to land neatly in the center.

"The wind is easy for me to manipulate," he finished. "In some worlds, they've already started to call me the Mage of the Winds."

"Which winds?"

"All of them."

Shizuka considered this then nodded once. For one who could call on the winds, summoning a pair of souls for two young girls probably hadn't even taxed him in the slightest. The archer stepped closer to his witch and took his hand, dropping a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

"Let's go home," he said softly.

Kimihiro smiled, eyes warm with love. "Yes."

* * *

One final title note, again brought to you by iGoogle: this one is pretty much "always me, always you" because, of course, Kimihiro and Shizuka couldn't even be separated by time.

And that's the end of the tetralogy/quadrilogy/four-shot. I might venture back to this post-series world again, but not for a while. I'm still surprised that I got in even a little "blue" content, but not too much. I don't often write it out, but the porn is generally ongoing in my head.

Now that this is finished, I'll be starting back with the next part of **Threads**. Don't everyone cheer at once


End file.
